Digital Marketing – What is it?

You see the words “Digital Marketing” often on websites and in advertisements, but what does it really mean?

Is it the next buzz word on the internet?

You might be surprised to know that the term digital marketing has been coined in the early 2000s. But the core of digital marketing started a long, long time ago. 100 years, to be exact.

Guglielmo Marconi was the first ever individual to demonstrate the concept of digital marketing. Who is Guglielmo Marconi? The inventor of the radio. He was the one to show the world how wireless signals could be transmitted over long distances.

His invention was put to good use. England started transmitting Morse codes over the open seas. Though it took 10 years for radio to become widespread, creative entrepreneurs had already seen the potential of how these wireless signals may be used to sell products.

And thus, digital marketing was born.

You may associate the word digital with smartphones, the Internet, Facebook, blogs and apps. But the truth is that digital marketing is not any of the ones mentioned above. Simply put, digital marketing is a form of product/service marketing that involves any kind of electronic device.

Digital marketing has been around for decades because electronics were invented a long time ago. But, in today’s standard, radio is no longer the medium of choice. The main channel of choice primarily comprises of two categories, desktop and or mobile, these two categories carry the largest amount of market share.

Even though most of the digital marketing is contained those two categories, you may be surprised to know that digital marketing can be done both on and off the web. In fact, doing so is part of a well-rounded marketing strategy. But unfortunately, outdoor digital media has lagged behind the times, and implementing outdoor media is a drag on time and resources.

So, Why Is Digital Marketing Important Today?

Well, billboards once dominated the advertising landscape way back in the early 90s. A 30-minute road trip would be interspersed with huge billboards with attractive pictures and catchy marketing messages. They were effective.

Billboard space was in such high demand that sometimes brands competed with each other using billboards. Even today, you can see epic clashes between brands: Samsung vs Apple. Apple vs Google. Before, it was brick and mortar stores competing against each other, now it’s the hardware giants of the world fisticuffs from one billboard to another. It’s clear, there’s a shift in the world of who is marketing, how they are marketing, and what they are selling.

So you can see, even today, companies are still spending millions of dollars in billboard advertisements, but the truth is that it’s starting to get a bit old and stale. (Either go big or go home!) And not all of us have the same budget of Coca Cola.

On top of all of this, shortly it can even be fair to say that no one will ever look at roads anymore. Why? Say thank you to Elon Musk and the geniuses of the world who are making hand-free driving a reality.

What does that mean for the passengers? True freedom. No more mindless scenery that repeats itself on your way to work – you can do whatever you want. Read a newspaper (or e-paper), read your emails, watch YouTube, the list of personal entertainment is endless because of the invention of smartphones. Billboards, won’t be attracting that much attention anymore; rendering their effectiveness to little or nothing.

The question to ask is, will you have enough time to learn all the ins and outs of digital marketing before it passes you in the blink of an eye? Will your technology be able to handle the progress, or will it fade into nothingness, just like billboard ads?

What we know is that people are now using their electronic devices more than ever. Americans use their phones for an average of 11 hours a day.

Think about it- that’s more than half the waking moment we spend doing important stuff such as eating, working and socializing.

Digital marketing has paved the way for people to earn thousands of dollars playing video games in front of the camera. Just less than 8 years ago, people would laugh at the idea of being “famous” being a professional gamer. Now some of those professional gamers are earning more than senior executives of large brick and mortar institutions. The digital shift is enormous, and it’s not something you can’t just lag behind.

What Makes Up Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is mainly made up of 2 types of marketing. We can classify them as online and offline. The difference between the two can be differentiated by whether the medium that displays your digital media are actively connected to the internet versus not actively.

Offline Marketing

TV Marketing

Who can forget the commercials on TV? TV marketing has been around for as long as TV was invented. But now it’s not always about showing your brand; it’s about tying your ad to something tangible.

Radio Marketing

While driving in your car, you turn on the radio. The silence is broken up by an overly enthusiastic voice advertising used cars in your neighbourhood. Yes, this hasn’t changed much. But now instead of driving you to their store immediately, new tactics involve not just physically driving you to their store, but perhaps driving you to their website.

Telemarketing (Oh yes, we didn’t miss you).

One of the oldest forms of offline marketing. Admittedly, telemarketing has had a lot of flops, failures and growing pains, but it’s here to stay as long as people are stuck to staring at their phone screens at the commute, at work or at home.

Direct Mail

Yup, that mail in your mailbox and not your e-mail box. Still, something effectively used today, but seldom looked at! At Find Your Audience, we actually consider this one of the most under-utilized offline channels being used today.

Conclusion.

We hope that you learned enough here about digital marketing to get started. The message we want to convey is that the internet is the current go-to platform for marketing. It’s still the place for success for digital marketers big and small.

The online world is fast and ever-growing, so you should put in the time to master online marketing and its trends as soon as you can. There will be plenty of opportunities that you shouldn’t miss out on!

Like we said, there’s still great potential for offline marketing. It still makes up a significant part of one’s overall digital marketing strategy. Remember the wise saying that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket? Your lead generation process and marketing strategy should go beyond the most popular, i.e., social media, email marketing and be more like a diversification of your limited resources. Just remember, different types of online assets require different types of campaigns. For example, for an e-commerce business, social media marketing is just one type of Digital Marketing. Alongside this marketing channel, e-commerce business should use other means to diversify their digital marketing strategy. By relying on PPC Ads, Native Ads, SEO and Email Marketing, ecommerce business can seize plenty of new opportunities in the fast and ever-growing online world.

The bottom line is that digital marketing should a catered approach. A well-made marketing attack will include a few more advertising channels which allows you to gain a greater reach and more profits. Consider the best marketing tactics to use and do everything you can to reach your intended audience!